It was a year ago that Hannah Graham, a bright, young college student with a promising future went missing in Charlottesville, Virginia, and was ultimately murdered.

Graham was last seen in the early hours of on Sept. 13, 2014, after a night out with friends. The search for her was the most exhaustive in Virginia history. And after her body was found, the investigation into her death, which generated national attention, led police to cases of other unsolved attacks against young women spanning a decade.

"48 Hours" kicks off its 28th season with a two-hour primetime investigation into who killed Graham and the terrifying fear that the accused killer may have struck before. "Hannah Graham: Deadly Connections" airs Saturday, Sept. 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

And, for the first time, "48 Hours" has produced a five-part crime and justice podcast series on the case.

The first installment of the podcast, anchored by WTOP-FM Correspondent Neal Augenstein, is available free for download below and at Play.it.

Check back daily for new episodes through Friday, Sept. 18.

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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

BREAKING: In a letter to the judge just made public, a former girlfriend of Jesse Matthew says that he was raped as a child and that played a key role in allegations that he raped and killed multiple women. The girlfriend says Matthew was sexually abused by at least 3 different people. Matthew's mother also begged for mercy and said her son "has always shown respect to everyone around him." This comes ahead of his sentencing that is scheduled for this Friday for the Fairfax rape case.

FAIRFAX, Va. (WJLA) — A woman who says she dated Jesse Matthew from 2003 to 2005 claims that the man accused of raping and murdering multiple women was himself raped as a child.

She says she knows of at least three people who sexually abused him and she says one raped Matthew repeatedly and forced him to keep quiet about it.

The former girlfriend wrote that letter to a Fairfax County Judge, hoping he will take her claims into consideration when he sentences Matthew on Friday for a violent 2005 rape.

Matthew is also awaiting trial in the murder or Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, whose body was found in early 2010, and UVA student Hannah Graham who was found murdered in late 2014.

Dr. Van Susteren says the childhood sex abuse claims may not be enough to sway the Judge when it comes to sentencing.

"In this case the violence perpetrated is much too severe to have any mitigating effect, I would say, on any kind of punishment," Susteren said.

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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Jesse Matthew still must await his fate in connection to the disappearance and death of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham. But whatever happens there, he now looks set to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

A judge sentenced Matthew, 33, to three life sentences Friday for a 2005 incident in which grabbed a 26-year-old woman as she was returning from a Fairfax, Virginia, grocery store and sexually assaulted her, the county's Commonwealth Attorney Raymond Morrogh told CNN.

That includes a capital murder charge -- which could carry a death sentence -- in the September 2014 disappearance and death of the 18-year-old Graham. The skull and bones of the college sophomore were found the next month on abandoned property about 8 miles from where she was last seen in Charlottesville's Downtown Mall area.

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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) -- Jesse Matthew Jr., charged with the murders of college students Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington, has been sentenced to three life prison terms for a sexual assault on a woman a decade ago in northern Virginia.

The Charlottesville, Virginia, man was sentenced Friday in Fairfax for attempted capital murder and sexual assault of a woman in 2005. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively at Friday's sentencing.

DNA evidence collected from Matthew during last year's investigation of Graham's disappearance linked him to the Fairfax County case.

His trial in the Hannah Graham case is set for July. He faces a possible death sentence there.

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I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Stuart Garner Jr., a former Louisa County detective and dog handler, testified in a pretrial hearing that his dog alerted him to Graham's scent in several areas of Matthew's apartment during a massive search for the student.Garner sparred with defense attorney Douglas Ramseur about whether he had told Ramseur that he believed that Graham had never been in Matthew's apartment.

A witness who called the Hannah Graham tip line told police she and her friend were walking along the Charlottesville downtown mall, about 1 a.m. on Sept. 13, when a man, who police now say is Matthew, tried to high-five her. The woman ignored Matthew, but watched as he approached another woman who was walking alone and put his arm around her. Police now say surveillance video shows the woman was Graham.

The woman told her friend, “He doesn’t know her.”

The witness and her friend followed Matthew and Graham into the Tempo restaurant and sat next to them. She noticed Graham had a pink smartphone in her back left pocket.

At last call, the witness said Graham asked her for a Marlboro cigarette. As the witness got up to leave, she remembered telling her friend, “he’s gonna <expletive> her up.”

The mulch pile

Former Louisa County detective Stuart “Buck” Garner and his bloodhound Shaker were called by Charlottesville police to help track Graham’s scent after her disappearance. With Shaker leading the way, Garner, followed by Charlottesville detectives, left the downtown mall area and walked about a mile and a half east on Market Street to a neighborhood known as Woolen Mills, named for the mill that operated from the 1850s until the 1960s.

According to Garner’s report, on Sept. 17, 2014, Shaker was drawn to a large mulch pile area, where trucks dump loads of chipped wood.

“I found a large volume of the missing girl’s scent at this mulch pile, possibly fear or adrenaline scent was present,” Garner wrote.

The next day, Garner said, his hound continued to focus on the mulch pile, and believed Graham left the location in a vehicle, because there was no evidence of her scent leaving the area.

Garner wrote: “I feel that something powerful happened here.”

In court Monday, prosecutors said they believe the mulch pile is where Hannah Graham was attacked.

Testimony in a hearing for accused murderer Jesse Matthew has some Charlottesville residents concerned.

On Monday (1/11), an investigator testified that his bloodhound tracked University of Virginia student Hannah Graham to a large mulch pile near the end of East Market Street. For 28 years, Bill Emory has lived on East Market Street. The dog-handler said that because humans shed about 40,000 skin cells every minute, his bloodhound could follow not just a pedestrian but also someone riding in a car with open windows.

Chipped wood covers an approximately half-acre clearing surrounded by trees at the end of East Market Street.

Logged

I stand with the girl, Natalee Holloway.

"I can look back over the past 10 years and there were no steps wasted, and there are no regrets,'' she said. "I did all I knew to do and I think that gives me greater peace now." "I've lived every parent's worst nightmare and I'm the parent that nobody wants to be," she said.

Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. is expected today to enter a plea deal that will once and for all put an end to the heinous murder cases of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. The plea is reportedly spare Matthews the death sentence. Why? Honestly, why would anyone want to spare this human POS death? The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today. Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. has been charged in the abductions and murders of both 18 year old UVA student Hannah Graham and 20 year old VA Tech student Morgan Harrington. Prosecutors had said they planned to seek the death penalty if the Graham case went to trial. Why stop now? Trust me, even the Black Lives Matter crowd would not protest you putting this SOB to death.

Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. is expected today to enter a plea deal that will once and for all put an end to the heinous murder cases of Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington. The plea is reportedly spare Matthews the death sentence. Why? Honestly, why would anyone want to spare this human POS death? The hearing is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today. Jesse LeRoy Matthew Jr. has been charged in the abductions and murders of both 18 year old UVA student Hannah Graham and 20 year old VA Tech student Morgan Harrington. Prosecutors had said they planned to seek the death penalty if the Graham case went to trial. Why stop now? Trust me, even the Black Lives Matter crowd would not protest you putting this SOB to death.